Digital Studio - Dec 2009 by ITP Business Publishing

SON OF BABYLON Iraqi director on the making of his latest ďŹ lm

DIGI-CULTURE The ins and outs of render farm technology

TOP 10 INSTALLATIONS Digital Studio Stud ud showc udio showcases owcases es the best broadcast projec projects of 2009

An ITP Business Publication

Vol. 11 Issue 12 December 2009

DECEMBER 2009 VOLUME 11 ISSUE 12 CONTENTS

5 NEWS

Oasis lights up Al Jazeera Arabic for 13th anniversary / Sony and BCS tie to support student ﬁlm fest in Lebanon / DIFF to woo YouTubers / Radio Tunisia streamlines workﬂow with NETIA / MTV and twofour54 come together for comedy

2009’S TOP 10 Digital Studio lists the best of the best installs of 2009 from diﬀerent systems integrators in the Middle East.

28 FACE TO FACE

David Shepheard, Abu Dhabi ﬁlm commissioner, discusses ADFC’s role in boosting ﬁlmmaking in the region.

32 POST PRODUCTION

Maya unravelled and render farms put in the spotlight by our resident VFX experts.

40 ON LOCATION

Iraqi director and DoP Mohammed Daradji on the making of his ﬁlm, Son of Babylon.

PRODUCTS We bring you the newest launches in the market.

52 MEBS / MEBV - REPORT

Sound bites from the inaugural edition of the broadcast and TV show in Abu Dhabi.

56 www.digitalproductionme.com

RAPID FIRE With Salman Almutaiwee on the Riyadh Media and Multimedia Exhibition in Saudi Arabia.

DECEMBER 2009

COMMENT DECEMBER 2009

WHY DUBAI SELLS! We have seen at least three film festivals hosted in the Middle East in the last three months but I’m convinced that the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), which will run this month, will be the most successful of the lot — not because it is the oldest of the festivals or has had more time to learn from its previous mistakes, but because it knows how to engage the community and woo the right media to its shores. When Dubai launched DIFF several years ago, it did get a couple of international names to run some parts of the show but it retained power in its own hands and let local filmmakers and leaders play a role in shaping it. As a result, local filmmakers who had dedicated themselves to the art were not made to look like second class citizens unworthy of sharing space with international indies. Instead, DIFF embraced both with open arms. Furthermore, it hosted the Gulf Film Festival (GFF) to ensure that local players had an even wider platform to showcase their films. Officials at DIFF don’t shy away from cameras; they are happy to give you an interview if you want one and PR personnel don’t hang around to guard their clients from select media. Besides, there is greater transparency and openness in the way DIFF operates. DIFF has also been careful to attract both the tabloids and the trade media to its event. While the tabloids are not to be dismissed, the event organisers have not forgotten the role regional trade titles dedicated to the TV

and film industry play in ensuring that local filmmakers get mileage in this market, where they will most likely ply their skills in the future. Unfortunately, few other regional film festivals have recognised this. As a result, celebrities walking the red carpet take up most of the air space at their events while local filmmakers or regional talent are given only token mentions. This must change. Film festival organisers must brief their PR personnel on the importance that regional trade titles play in covering such events. While the tabloids and international media will, no doubt, cover the glitz and glamour and also carry sarcastic opinion pieces on oil rich countries flush with money, it’s the trade titles that will serve to introduce regional talent to the local production industry and bring the two together for projects. The workshops and conferences that governments invest in to encourage local production will only bear fruit when some of those budding filmmakers gain visibility in a workspace that will most likely absorb them. Trade publications play a key role. It’s something that DIFF has understood, respected and appreciated. It’s something that other regional festivals must also acknowledge to ensure that their efforts benefit the local film community.

Registered at Dubai Media City PO Box 500024, Dubai, UAE Tel: 00 971 4 210 8000, Fax: 00 971 4 210 8080 Web: www.itp.com Offices in Dubai & London ITP Business Publishing CEO Walid Akawi Managing Director Neil Davies Deputy Managing Director Matthew Southwell Editorial Director David Ingham VP Sales Wayne Lowery Editorial Senior Group Editor, Broadcast & Media Aaron Greenwood Tel: +971 4 435 6251 email: aaron.greenwood@itp.com Editor Vijaya Cherian Tel: +971 4 435 6296 email: vijaya.cherian@itp.com Assistant Editor Patrick Elligett Tel: +971 4 435 6181 patrick.elligett@itp.com Advertising Commercial Director, Broadcast & Media Fred Dubery Tel: +971 4 435 6339 email: fred@itp.com Sales Manager Gavin Murphy Tel: +971 4 435 6369 email: gavin.murphy@itp.com N.American Advertisement Director Michael J. Mitchell Tel: +1 631 673 3199 email: mjmitchell@broadcast-media.tv Japan Representative Mikio Tsuchiya Tel: + 81 354 568230 email: ua9m-tcy@asahi-net.or.jp Studio Group Art Editor Daniel Prescott Designer Martin Staniszewski Photography Director of Photography Sevag Davidian Chief Photographer Khatuna Khutsishvili Senior Photographers Efraim Evidor, Thanos Lazopoulos Staff Photographers Jovana Obradovic, Isidora Bojovic, George Dipin, Rajesh Raghav, Ruel Pableo, Lyubov Galushko Production & Distribution Group Production Manager Kyle Smith Production Manager Eleanor Zwanepoel Managing Picture Editor Patrick Littlejohn Image Retoucher Emmalyn Robles Distribution Manager Karima Ashwell Distribution Executive Nada Al Alami Circulation Head of Circulation and Database Gaurav Gulati Marketing Head of Marketing Daniel Fewtrell ITP Digital Director Peter Conmy ITP Group Chairman Andrew Neil Managing Director Robert Serafin Finance Director Toby Jay Spencer-Davies Board of Directors K.M. Jamieson, Mike Bayman, Walid Akawi, Neil Davies, Rob Corder, Mary Serafin

VIJAYA CHERIAN Editor EMAIL: vijaya.cherian@itp.com

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ON THIS MONTH’S COVER Digital Studio takes a look at the top 10 installations in the Middle East in 2009. Read the full story on page 16.

The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Readers are advised to seek specialist advice before acting on information contained in this publication which is provided for general use and may not be appropriate for the reader’s particular circumstances. The ownership of trademarks is acknowledged. No part of this publication or any part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers in writing. An exemption is hereby granted for extracts used for the purpose of fair review.

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D U B A I 20 0 9

NEWS REGIONAL UPDATE

OASIS LIGHTS UP AL JAZEERA ARABIC FOR 13TH ANNIVERSARY

IN BRIEF ABU DHABI CINEMA CHAIN INVESTS IN 4K PROJECTORS

Al Jazeera Arabic went on air with a new look on November 1.

Al Jazeera Arabic channel has revamped its sets for a new on-air look to coincide with its thirteenth anniversary. While the sets were redesigned by US designer BDI, the lighting was replaced by Dubaibased systems integrator, Oasis Enterprises. One of the main elements of the US $400,000 project was the installation of a complete LED wall in the background. Besides this, DeSisti cool lights and ETC dimming and control systems were installed at the facility. “We replaced the ﬂuorescent lights with LED lights from Italian manufacturer Coemar. LED is more easily controlled, provides more power sav-

ings because it generates less heat and also requires less maintenance. Besides they have a much longer lifespan,” claimed Basel Al Aref. As with most projects of this nature, Al Aref added that Oasis worked towards a very tight deadline to complete the project on time. “It was mission impossible but we did it. We literally focused the lights ﬁve minutes before going to air – normally, you need to have time to do a rehearsal for such projects – but it went without a single hitch,” he added. Al Jazeera Arabic went on air with a new look on November 1, 2009.

Abu Dhabi cinema operator RoyalCine will install four Sony CineAlta 4K digital cinema projectors in its Delma Mall-based theatres, marking a first for the region in the rollout of 4K digital cinema technology. The deployment, which is being carried out by Pal Group and is set to for completion in Q1, 2010, will enable the Delma Mall-based facility to screen HD films in four of its 14 theatres. RoyalCine group GM Fazal Ameen said the operator planned to purchase a further 10 projectors over the next two years, effectively creating the Middle East’s first all-digital cinema at Delma Mall. Muhammad Nasir Ali, CTO, Pal Computer Systems added: “HD TV is already available in homes and the time is right to equip cinemas with the digital experience. “

SSONY AND BCS JOIN HANDS TO SUPPORT STUDENT FILM FEST IN LEBANON

Above: Elie Yahchouchi, BCS CEO (extreme right, front row) and below, Sony’s Takashi Miura.

LLe TTemps Des D Cerises, C i directed di t d b by R Robert b t Cremona, walked away with the first prize at the third annual student film festival held by Lebanon’s Notre Dame University – Louaize last month. The festival, which was held from November 8-15 in collaboration with the Monaco Film Festival and sponsored by Sony Professional Solutions Middle

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East E and systems integrator Broadcast & Communication Systems (BCS), received a C number of entries from eight universities n in i the country for its competition segment, which was open only to students. m The T winning entry each day received a free copy of the Sony Vegas software. f “These films compete in international film festivals and the students who t participated are all majoring in Radio/ p TV T production and filmmaking in their respective universities,” commented r Nadine Matta, sales manager, BCS. N “We have identified the potential in this market and have looked at working with students right from the beginning to help them realise their potential. Our role is to encourage young artists and the new generation of filmmakers in Lebanon. We have eight major universities that teach AV production and several institutes offer this as a major to students,” she added.

Speaking about Sony’s involvement, Takashi Miura, general manager, Sony Professional Solutions Middle East commented that the company has always invested in the region’s talent. “The Arab world has tremendous potential in content creation and our support at this festival and other regional festivals is an endorsement of this sentiment. Sony has previously lent its support to the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi and has been closely aligned with the Dubai International Film festival for the last couple of years, thereby reinforcing the importance we lay on the content creation industry in the Arab markets,” he added. As part of its aim to celebrate women in Lebanese cinema, the festival organisers also screened one feature film directed by Lebanese female directors on each day of the festival.

DECEMBER 2009 5

NEWS REGIONAL UPDATE

IN BRIEF

DIFF 2009 GOES THE EXTRA MILE TO WOO YOUTUBERS

ADFC ANNOUNCES FUNDING COMPETITION FOR SHORT FILMS The Abu Dhabi Film Commission (ADFC) has launched Aflam Quaseera Production Fund to encourage the production of short films. Twenty proposals will be selected for development, of which ten will eventually be selected for production. Each selected project will be eligible for up to US $27,000 in production funds. The competition is open to films of 5-12 minutes in length and can be from any genre (drama, comedy, documentary, children’s, animation, horror, etc). Scripts in English or Arabic in standard screenplay format can be entered. To qualify, participants must be 18 years or older, and be a UAE or GCC national or a resident of the UAE for more than 1 year. Entries must be submitted by December 20.

VITAL STATS

400 FOR-A HVS-300HS switchers were sold since its debut at NAB ‘09.

SAE’s Giorgio Ungania says social media networks will help promote DIFF further.

Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) will woo the YouTube generation this year with snippets from the festival every 30 minutes after every red carpet screening or special programmes and workshops through a special 17-member strong team headed by the SAE Institute in Dubai. Heading the YouTube programme, a ﬁrst for the festival, is Giorgio Ungania, head of commercial services at SAE International. “We wanted to have a live channel online that would continuously feed information about DIFF to our viewers. YouTube will be perfect for this but we will also utilize Facebook and Twitter. Our objective is to use all social networks to promote the activities

Peter Einstein, CEO of Eclipse Digital.

Dubai-based Eclipse Digital, a new entrant in digital media, archival and content acquisition management has signed a deal with Paris-based production and distribution ﬁrm, Wild Bunch. Under the terms of the deal, Eclipse Digital will digitise

6 DECEMBER 2009

a the festival,” explained Ungania. “It obviously has at tto be short snippets and appeal to YouTube viewers sso interviews will be done in a fun style but within tthe bandwidth of this culture. We’ll, for instance, aask actors some whacky questions about their ffavourite stuff rather than about the movie per se,” he explained. h Although plans are not fully firmed up at this sstage, SAE will rope in its film students to take on the rroles of cameramen, anchors, editors and so on. SAE sstaff will offer additional support by editing clips to ensure timely upload of video footage to YouTube. An interesting element of this project will be the use of JVC’s newest GY-H100 and GY-H700 cameras for filming at DIFF. JVC Gulf is supporting the project by supplying four GY-H100s and two 700s for the shoot. “All footage will be shot in High Definition and be archived for DIFF for future use. They will, however, be downscaled for YouTube viewing,” he clarified. The team hopes to open up opportunities to UAE residents as well to join the team as anchors. “Online social networks have the amazing capability of making content viral and we’re sure that if we follow a fun way of doing this, DIFF will get even further mileage,” added Ungania.

ECLIPSE DIGITAL TAKES ON THE WILD BUNCH more than 1000 titles presently held by the French company. The agreement will also see the two parties work together to acquire other original content for TV, cinema and broadband distribution. Eclipse Digital will manage all services required to convert, restore and repurpose every type of content into a digital format, ready for archiving and commercial application. “Most of the content is on celluloid so we intend to digitise it and in some cases, restore it to its original state and repurpose it for different media platforms,” explained Peter Einstein, CEO of Eclipse Digital. “In some cases, we will also offer the content in different languages and ultimately, distribute it for commercial purposes. We are also negotiating a joint licensing and ownership of certain parts of the content but this will be discussed further only in the second phase.” Einstein adds that this deal will “translate into more traffic for digitisation and storage”.

“Content owners around the world are recognising the huge potential in transferring original form content such as films, video, images, books and works of art into digital files. This deal offers us the opportunity to establish a commercial distribution platform using the latest digital distribution techniques and utilising the Wild Bunch access to diverse libraries and acquisitions,” he stated. Eclipse Digital, however, will be outsourcing the content digitisation to third parties until the company has a facility of its own. “We are still in the process of determining where our facility will be built although the designs are ready,” explained Einstein. Eclipse Digital aims to grow its digital servicing business through a variety of means in growing markets. Vincent Grimond, CEO of Wild Bunch added that partnership with Eclipse Digital would help the two firms push the “boundaries in the digital market”.

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NEWS REGIONAL UPDATE

IN BRIEF SONY TO HOST POWER OF IMAGES Sony Professional Solutions & Middle East will showcase several new products in the Middle East this month including the SRW9000 HDCAM SR camorder; the PMW-EX1R; the PMW-350 shoulder-mounted solid state camcorder; the MVS-6000 multi-format video; the BRS-200 HD-DS video switcher; the Sonaps news production system and the ELC newsroom automation system. Sony will also hold special sessions titled “Beyond codec in the tapeless workﬂow”, “3D technology” and “HD live production workﬂow” at the event, which will be held from December 16-17 in Dubai.

THOMSON REOPENS GV SALE TALKS Thomson is holding “active discussions with a number of buyers” to sell Grassvalley, according to a source close to the deal. The Thomson Group is also looking to sell its PRN digital signage unit as it looks to focus on services for content creators including its set top box business and the Technicolour ﬁlm processing business.

VITAL STATS

500 comedy episodes are aired across the MENA region every month - IPSOS

RADIO TUNISIA STREAMLINES WORKFLOW WITH NETIA Radio Tunisienne Chaine Internationale (RTCI) has installed NETIA’s Radio-Assist digital audio software to streamline its broadcast workflow, from acquisition through playout, for its international radio programming. The end-to-end solution enables RTCI staff to record, edit, or prepare playlists from within a single application. Marouane Gallah, technical director of RTCI commented that Radio-Assist “is a comprehensive broadcast system that provides all the functionality we need in a smart, highly automated workflow that speeds time-to-air.” “The software suite ensures efficient handling and management of content, simplifying our access to media, and providing staff the flexibility in creating radio programming and distribution to multiple platforms,” he said. RTCI uses a Radio-Assist system built on two servers and equipped with NETIA’s DBShare to ensure the security and integrity of its stored media. DBShare ensures the stability of database contents, synchronising all databases automatically, and thus providing automatic, transparent redundancy and automatic database restoration, in the event of any incident. The broadcaster also fitted out two on-air studios with NETIA’s Air-DDO broadcast module and added a third station to support automatic playout of night-time programming. The Air-DDO graphical user interface displays the broadcast channel along with help and prepa-

Radio-Assist enables RTCI staff to undertake all their work from a single application.

ration tools for cueing, on-air monitoring, playlist modiﬁcation, recording, and production. Directly linked to the scheduling workstations, Air-DDO keeps track of the latest changes made to the playlist in real-time and automatically displays the refreshed playlist data. The project includes two production workstations dedicated to acquisition and editing. Three additional workstations support music scheduling, advertising scheduling, and recording of phone inserts while a fourth enables journalists to call in and trigger recording using a security code. RTCI has also installed Radio-Assist workstations for logging, streaming, and internet broadcasting using NETIA’s Air-Push and dispatcher.

MTV AND TWOFOUR54 COME TOGETHER FOR COMEDY

IMAGENATION AND PARTNERS ARE STREET DANCING

MTV Networks International (MTVNI) and twofour54 have conﬁrmed a new deal to establish an Arab comedy content production studio under the Comedy Central brand. Based within twofour54’s content production precinct, Comedy Central Studios Arabia will produce local comedy programming, Arabised versions of existing Comedy Central staples and dubbed versions of existing Western content. The organisation will also use the production, post production and broadcast facilities at twofour54 intaj. Twofour54 CEO Tony Orsten said the new initiative would provide Arab comedians and comedy producers with an unprecedented opportunity. “From individual stand-up talent right through to major comic productions, Comedy Central Studios Arabia will provide an opportunity for Arabic comics and comedy programming talent that simply never existed before,” he said.

Imagenation Abu Dhabi and partners Hyde Park Entertainment Group and Singapore’s Media Development Authority (MDA), joined forces with songwriter/producer Dave Stewart to produce Street Dancing, a story set in the world of a cutting-edge dance competition in Singapore and New York. Music for the ﬁlm will be provided by Stewart along with Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman. Ashok Amritraj, chairman of Hyde Park Entertainment Group commented that this “pop-cross-cultural project is an organic match for continuing our partnerships between Hollywood, the Middle East and Asia , and gives us the ability to explore the exciting new distribution format of mobile technology.” Imagenation Abu Dhabi CEO Edward Borgerding added that the project is ideal ”to commence our partnership with Hyde Park and the MDA”.

8 DECEMBER 2009

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NEWS REGIONAL UPDATE

MOVERS & SHAKERS MIRANDA TECHNOLOGIES Roger Sewell has joined Miranda Technologies’ European sales team as business development director EMEA. In his new role, Roger will initially focus on strengthening customer, systems integrator and dealer relationships in Eastern Europe. Prior to joining Miranda, Roger worked with Pro-Bel, where he held a variety of roles, including positions in project engineering, sales and network management.

DIGITAL IGITAL VISIO VISION Michael Freudenthal has joined Digital Vision as CEO from December. The appointment follows strong Q3 results and continues the company’s investment in key staﬀ to develop and deliver innovative image enhancement and restoration solutions. Freudenthal, who has held key high-level roles in the technology sector, will lead the company from its Swedish headquarters in Stockholm. He recently held the position of VP and COO at IQUBE.

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ROSS VIDEO Ross Video has appointed Brian Olson business development manager for XPression, Ross’ Real Time 2D/3D HD character generator. Olson will be based in Nebraska and will be responsible for supporting the XPression product line in the United States. Olson joins Ross from Miranda Technologies, where he worked as director of Business Development.

BEXEL Bexel, a unit of Vitec Group Systems Division, has appointed Helen Carr to the post of Bexel ASG Pro Audio sales manager. Carr will be responsible for overseeing the sales eﬀorts of Bexel’s national team that sells, installs and supports a wide range of top audio brands including Calrec, Lectrosonics, Zaxcom, Clear-Com and many others. Carr, a 20-year broadcast veteran, joined Bexel in 2003 following a successful career with companies like Quantel and Snell & Wilcox. Prior to that, she worked as a documentary producer for such clients as Discovery Network, The Learning Channel and Home & Garden Television.

DECEMBER 2009 11

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NEWS INTERNATIONAL PROJECT

TEDIAL IMPLEMENTS ADVANCED ONLINE SERVICES FOR SPANISH SENATE

CLIENT: SPANISH SENATE KEY INTEGRATOR: TEDIAL

The Spanish Senate recently undertook a major project in conjunction with process and automation specialist TEDIAL to o upgrade its existing broadcast facilities to provide comprehensive online access to users. The new solution enables users – both within the Senate and via the internet for journalists and Spanish citizens – to access debates live and search the archive by subject, speaker or date. The project involved the integration of the TEDIAL media asset management system with Grass Valley K2 broadcast servers and the Gelabert parliamentary planning database. It is this tight integration that makes the system particularly ﬂexible and supportive for all users. “In a 21st century democracy, people expect to be able to see and understand what decisions their elected representatives are making on their behalf,” says José Mesas, CEO of TEDIAL. “We have installed one of the most advanced systems in the world, allowing any citizen to search through the Senate archives to see how such issues have been debated.”

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Before each day’s debates, the TEDIAL system collects th fundamental information includfun ing the th topics to be covered and the speakers sscheduled to be called from the Gelabert system. As the debates develop, the TEDIAL TD Live ingest client adds additional information, such as other deputies who speak, and emergency topics that are discussed. The searchable index is, therefore, created in real time. On a parallel note, the TEDIAL MPM media management system creates the online content. The television coverage of the chamber is recorded in MXF DV25 format on the Grass Valley K2 video servers while MPM simultaneously creates four additional copies: in MPEG-2 for DVDs; Windows Media proxies to allow desktop searching over the Senate intranet; and low bitrate Windows Media and Real Video for the internet. The content is streamed live, but because the database and content are linked so closely within the TEDIAL system, with parliamentary information from the Gelabert database, users are able to search for content immediately, even before a debate has ﬁnished.

Emilio Lopez Zapata, CTO of TEDIAL says the project is an illustration of how technically ﬂexible the system is. “We have gone live with this system, which delivers real beneﬁts to users. The tight integration between the Senate’s existing planning system and our new media asset management minimises errors and speeds the delivery of content to users, whether inside the Senate building or anywhere around the world,” he explains. The TEDIAL media asset management system implemented at the Spanish Senate includes the latest versions of the Tarsys module (audio-visual archive management), AST (hierarchical storage management to archive and retrieve historical content) and Media Process Manager (systems and applications integration). It runs on standard IBM hardware delivered as part of the project.

KEY SYSTEMS TEDIAL media asset management system Grass Valley K2 broadcast servers Gelabert parliamentary planning database

DECEMBER 2009 13

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MOST READ WEB NEWS STORIES:

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MOROCCAN FILM SOLE ARAB NOMINEE FOR FOREIGN OSCAR Morocco is the only the Arab nation nominated in the foreign language Academy Award. The full list of the 65 nominated countries has been released with only Iran and Morocco representing the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. The contenders are Morocco’s Casanegra by Nour-Eddine Lakhmari and Iran’s About Elly by Asghar Farhadi. Traditionally, Egypt and Lebanon have been the prolific

producers. Although both had representations last year, they were absent from the 2009 nominations. Lebanon’s 2008 nominee Caramel was short listed for the award, building on the success it enjoyed through out the 2008 festival circuit. Despite a number of initiatives to encourage production in the region, there is yet to be any significant visible impact on international markets.

Killers call time on bench warmers Thomson reopens Grass Valley sale talks AV Tech upstages Abu Dhabi F1 action.

IN PICTURES

DOHA TRIBECA FILM EST

EDITOR’S CHOICES TECHNOLOGY

ANALYSIS

CODE BREAKERS

QATAR RISING

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The key technology easing multiplatform challenges for broadcasters

How Qatar is pioneering the implementation of AV technology

SPOT POLL

Which Middle East ﬁlm festival has impressed you the most this year?

Source: www.digitalproductionme.com

32.6% 26.1% 23.9% 13.1% 4.3% MEIFF, Abu Dhabi

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Doha Tribeca Film Festival

Cairo International Film Festival

Gulf Film Festival, Dubai

Jordan International Film Festival DECEMBER 2009 15

COVER STORY TOP 10 PROJECTS

DIGITAL STUDIO’S

TOP 10 Vijaya Cherian looks back at the ten top broadcast installations of 2009

16 DECEMBER 2009

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COVER STORY TOP 10 PROJECTS

AL JAZEERA SPORT SI: QVEST MEDIA

Al Jazeera Sport deployed a tapeless ingest, editing and playout workflow this summer with the help of Dubai-based systems integrator Qvest Media FZ LLC. The ambitious project was planned, pre-configured and installed on-site for on-air operation within four months. The system, which currently features an 11-channel playout solution, covers nine of Al Jazeera Sports’ pay TV channels and two of its free-to-air channels. Qvest Media partnered with its German sister company Wellen+Noethen to meet the project’s tight deadline. Planning and pre-configuration for the system was carried out in Germany in two months. Parallel to this, UPS systems, cable routing and wiring as well as the studio furniture and the connection with the central equipment room was prepared for the system integration on site in Doha. To speed up the final integration process, the Colognealso integrated the complete IT and AV technolbased team als was prepared for commissioning, packed into ogy, which wa racks cks and se sent byy airfreight g to Doha. Up to 24 mu multi-format ulti-format input channels, which are controlled by eight EVS XT units, are now being made available for the signal ingest. They can be used by a technical supervisor managers to manage incoming feeds using and two media manager central planning software and to control the entire production process even at an early stage. s Several workstations show s the central ingest processes, schedule, database and authorisation such as the ingest sched schedu management. Server monitoring, health monitoring and S

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central memory management are also shown. Once the ingest process has taken place, the incoming SD/HD signals on the EVS servers are converted to the respective production format using IP directors. Storage takes place via TCP/IP using Avid Interplay Transfer Engines on an Avid Unity ISIS system with 500 hours of HD recording capacity. The material is then made available to ten editors and cutters in post-production for further processing. They can view and index the material using a special browsing software. They can also undertake further cuts, add the metadata and special effects at the final processing stage using four Avid Media Composer Mojo DX systems. To speed up the production process, editors and cutters can also transfer the edited material to the playout environment using Avid Interplay Assist and a send-toplayback command. This, in turn, makes available up to five EVS XT units with up to 22 channels, that can be used for recording management, studio transfer, programme broadcasting and much more. To finalise the broadcasting material and create playlists, five operators can access two broadcasting channels each in the newly-built master control room. Besides this, ten existing Vizrt graphic engines have been reconfigured into a new central equipment room and integrated into the working environment and database structure. For redundancy, all EVS units between ingest and playout have been linked to each other using an additional SDTI network, enabling available EVS data to be exchanged and

further processed without any losses in the event of a disaster or for direct internal streaming. Saeed O. Bawazir, technology division director at Al Jazeera, commented that finding the right integration partner for this project was tough owing to the tight deadline. “Having to implement a fully functional and fail-proof system of this size in time to broadcast the UEFA Champions League posed a major challenge. We carefully examined a similar implementation by Wellen+Noethen for the live broadcasting of UEFA EURO 2008. “The digital workflows we have deployed along the entire production chain speeds up our processes significantly and enables greater flexibility. Now, we make full use of our applications with ease and run the system with many different broadcasting formats, including the live broadcasting of the Spanish Primera División,” he explains. Stephan Seelaender, general manager of Qvest Media adds that Al Jazeera was quickly won over by the idea of “integrating the high-end technology offered by its German distribution partners Riedel, LYNX, RTW and the virtual LSB studio controller into the infrastructure.” “This project was a valuable experience for us. Close collaboration with the Al Jazeera Sport team at all stages of the project made the smooth implementation of this project possible.” “Once the system was supplied to Al Jazeera Sport, technicians from Qvest Media and Wellen+Noethen undertook the installation and integration with the existing technology. In parallel, employees – including administrators, editors, cutters, operators and media managers – were trained to operate the new technology. Qvest Media is also tasked with providing permanent support to Al Jazeera and the technical servicing of the system,” he adds. Client: Al Jazeera Sport Location: Doha Systems integrator: Qvest Media Task: Switching Al Jazeera Sports to digital

DECEMBER 2009 17

COVER STORY TOP 10 PROJECTS

Abu Dhabi-based Al Dafrah Group underAL DAFRAH took a bold and ambitious multi-million SI: TEK SIGNALS dollar HD project that included three studios and a four-camera OB van in early 2009 to help with the production of music videos and other online content for its new channels. Al Dafrah has adopted a tapeless workflow and the 1080i 50 format across its entire facility. As part of the project, the Group built two HD-only studios at Dubai Studio City and a smaller multi-format facility in Abu Dhabi. The two studios in DSC include a 16mx12m production studio that can accommodate six to eight sets at a time and a three-camera virtual studio. The smaller studio in Abu Dhabi can support both HD and SD formats and is designed for much smaller productions. Each of the three studios is fitted with high-end Ikegami HDK-79 EX III cameras. The studios are based on a HD-file acquisition workflow and employ a mix of hardware and software from different vendors. Hardware for the post production and transmission areas has been sourced from Thomson Grass Valley (TGV) and includes a K2 ingest server, a NAS production server and a K2 transmission server, all which work in 1080i 50. Aurora Edius Craft non-linear editors Although the main format standard of the facility is 1080i 50 for are connected to the production server. This ensures that a clip that transmission, the NLEs and four newly-acquired Panasonic 3000 is ingested to the ingest server and then moved to the production cameras that are used for field production can record at 1080p usserver is then available for all the NLEs to work on. The TV facility operates a fully automated workflow using Pebble ing the AVC Intra Codec. As the NLEs are fitted with P2 card chassis’, they can utilise the material straight from the P2 card in whatever Beach automation, that is capable of auto recognition, renaming format the client wants to use them. and overall file organisation within different areas of the station In addition to this, the 3D virtual studio and the production including ingest, production, playout and archive.

facility is linked to the main TV centre by a microwave link backed up by a SI: SALAM MEDIACA ST point-to-point fibre optics link. At the heart of the centre is a tapeless newsroom system from VSN that controls the whole workflow from ingest to editing and news preparation to playout and archiving. VSN was chosen because of its ease of use, compatibility with the Arabic language and seamless integration with the different modules of the newsroom system, namely ingest, playout, graphis system, wires feeds from news agencies and MAM. Syrian TV was gifted a state-of-the-art TV centre that was The newsroom installation covers 40 journalists’ deskfunded by Dubai’s state-backed media conglomerate, Dubai tops, eight postproduction non linear editing (NLE) suites Media Inc, that went on air in September. and offers completely redundant PCR and MCR playouts. The project comprised a news production facility including Expanding the number of video ingest lines, journalists, a main studio, an exchange studio, a newsroom system, NLEs, MCR Playouts, PCR playouts, capacity of the online non-linear editing suites, an on-air graphics system, video storage, capacity of the near-line storage and so on will be servers, and a data tape archive system. The news production

SYRIAN TV

18 DECEMBER 2009

studio are both ﬁtted with Panasonic AJ 110E P2 disc players and recorders, again allowing the source from the studio to be recorded in 1080i 50 directly to the P2 card for either editing in-house or at a client’s facility. Alternatively, the studio output can be recorded directly onto the ingest server via the TGV matrix. “We chose the P2 format because of its ﬂexibility, size and ease of use. We wanted something that had no moving parts and didn’t rely on discs being spun up to read/write speed etc,” explains Graham Day, chief consultant, Al Dafrah Group. “As we noticed over the years with using spinning disc technology, it has certain drawbacks over Flash disc (FD) technology. That isn’t to say that FD is the answer to everything, but in a harsh and dusty environment like the UAE, it does have some advantages over tape and spinning disc technology,” he adds. Besides the studios, Al Dafrah has also invested in a four-camera HD OB van with HD DSNG uplink. The van includes two P2 player/ recorders and a digital Betacam player/recorder for clients still using SD as a format. “Our biggest USP is that we have a compact and comprehensive HD environment in the middle of Dubai that provides a facility for clients who want to start using HD without making the capital investment,” adds Day. Client: Al Dafrah Group, Abu Dhabi Main locations: Dubai Studio City, Abu Dhabi Channels: Al Dafrah Music Channel, Al Dafrah Entertainment Systems integrator: Tek Signals, Abu Dhabi

easy with this solution, claims VSN. Other key kit include Sony E30 cameras, its DVS-9000 production switcher backed up by a Sony MFS-2000 production switcher and a 24ft Jimmy Jib crane, Final Cut Pro and Sony Vegas solutions, Miranda X3D powered by a real-time 3D engine from Ventuz, and an oﬄine graphics preparation station, fully integrated with the NRCS system. Salam MediaCast has also provided a Qualstar TLS-88132 tape library with 2 LTO-4 drives and 132 tapes, fully controlled by VSN’s HSM for data storage. End user: Syrian TV Client: Dubai Media Inc. Main location: Syria Systems integrator: Salam MediaCast, Qatar Task: Building of a new newsroom and related facilities for Syrian TV

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COVER STORY TOP 10 PROJECTS

the lighting control system. At the heart of this The Saudi Ministry of Culture and Inforinstallation are several Harris systems including mation (MOCI) unveiled a brand new, IO UD ST AM M the Nexio servers, the Centro multi-viewers, state-of-the-art HD facility in Dammam M DA . CO LF GU T RS the Navigator and Velocity that run the show just after Eid. The $26 million project FI : SI across diďŹ&#x20AC;erent parts of the facility. includes two studios â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one for production Special mention must be made of the master and the other for news. control room that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just control and monitor the What makes this facility a showcase is the fact that equipment in the control apparatus room (CAR) and the it houses one of Saudi MOCIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newest HD studios and follows a studios but also helps to bridge the studios with other TV tapeless workďŹ&#x201A;ow. All of Saudi MOCIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new projects are aimed facilities of the MOCI. Besides this, the playout is controlled by at adopting 720p with a migratory path to 1080i in the future. a central server at the MCR that provides feeds to Saudi TV in The equipment at the facility, therefore, fully supports 720p Riyadh. The facility is also equipped to receive external feeds from the Hitachi SK-3200P cameras to the Harris solutions and from M/W and satellites. the Kahuna switcher. At the Dammam facility, the equipment is located entirely in The lighting in these studios again is impressive. Key the CAR and end users merely operate from a central server. systems deployed include 500 Channels of ADB Eurodim3 Dimmer Cabinet with Redundant Control System (wired and wireless), 70 x LSI motorised hoists with 4 x 3m poles operated Client: Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information pantograph in each barrel, touch screen control for the hoists, Main location: Dammam, Saudi Arabia and approximately 400 assorted types of luminaires. Each Systems integrator: First Gulf Company, KSA studio lighting control (ADB PHOENIX 5/XT) has a redundant Task: Building a state-of-the-art TV facility in conďŹ guration to ensure that there is no single point of failure in Dammam

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DECEMBER 2009 19

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COVER STORY TOP 10 PROJECTS

QATAR TV Besides the fact that the unit follows strict 2009 saw the delivery of several large HD road regulation standards, it has been speciďŹ cally OB vans in the Middle East. Qatar TV took SI: ARET developed to weather the hot, humid and sandy delivery of a 12-camera OB van from ARET conditions of the Middle East. in early 2009. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have used a special technology for the construction of The van also uses two additional wireless cameras and can this vehicle and it is a unique standard developed by ARET,â&#x20AC;? support production in both SD and HD formats. claims Dr. Eng. Umberto Asti, vice president from ARET. The 12-14 camera van boasts two production rooms. This â&#x20AC;&#x153;Though it is fully expandable, the look of the van is very clean. van has one of the widest main production rooms. A second Right from the lower stainless steel belt to the foldable stairs, the production room is complete with slow motion pod, and a post embedded sunshields and the operational lights, this coach is a production console has been designed to operate comfortably reďŹ&#x201A;ection of our capabilities as an OB van manufacturer,â&#x20AC;? he adds. from the operational area. The van has also been designed to have the shortest possible The two production rooms are designed to share all of the time to operation. As a result, all of the mechanic handlings of the resources in a ďŹ&#x201A;exible way although they can be conďŹ gured van are automatic and controlled by a movement detection security so that they can produce completely separate programmes by system. Nevertheless, in cases of emergency, the hydraulics can be assigning the resources from a simple keypad. operated manually. The vanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s engineering room hosts some of the best technoloThe power supply system is designed to operate even if gies in the market for OB production including Thomson LDK emergencies crop up. The system is equipped with an insulation 8000 cameras, Kayak HD 300 and 100 production mixers, a transformer. In addition, a battery of UPS can power up the entire Calrec Zeta audio console, a Yamaha secondary audio console, OB van for several minutes. EVS slomo servers, Kroma Telecomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s monitors and intercom This OB van is completed by a power generator and transportasystems, a GVG routing switcher and Tektronix systems.

tion vehicle. The power supply system is designed for operating in hot, humid and sandy environments. The van has also been designed with a lot of storage space and additional rest area for crew equipped with an air conditioning system. Client: QATAR TV, Abu Dhabi Main locations: QATAR Systems integrator: ARET Task: Providing a turnkey 12-camera HD OB van

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DECEMBER 2009 21

COVER STORY TOP 10 PROJECTS

TWOFOUR54 INTAJ SI: SONY ME

Twofour54 launched intaj, a multi-million dollar, state-ofthe-art facility in Abu Dhabi to provide production houses and broadcasters in the region with a one-stop HD solution that will enable them to undertake their entire workflow from content generation and editing to delivery. In addition, intaj also has a media asset management facility — thought to be the first such service in the region. intaj currently operates five studios and 22 post production suites from two sites in Abu Dhabi located at the National Theatre site and Khalifa Park. The entire project was designed and installed

at the facility by Sony Professional Solutions Middle East in conjunction with the intaj team headed by Hasan Sayed Hasan, head of intaj. This facility has primarily been designed to offer twofour45’s partners and other producers in the region with the ability to use industry-standard solutions for their production work. As a result, great attention has been paid to put in place both cost effective as well as high-end solutions so that clients will have the flexibility to opt for solutions that meet their budget requirements.

Much of the installation at the facility is based on the anticipated requirements of most production houses. In addition, intaj has also employed highly skilled people to man its operations so as to ensure that clients can maximise the potential of its equipment. Client: twofour54 intaj Main location: Abu Dhabi Systems integrator: Sony Professional Solutions ME Task: Building a turnkey production and editing facility for twofour54

The studios are equipped with Grass Valley Four years after it was first conceived LDK 8000 cameras and with Canon lenses and despite being stalled several times KUWAIT TV because Kuwait TV wanted multi-format with the rise and fall of different politiSI: INC cameras with triax support. cal players in Kuwait, the country’s first The facility also includes two linear editing HDTV centre went on air this year. suites with Sony VTRs and Kayak Vision Mixers to acKuwait TV was one of the first broadcasters commodate content that comes in from KTV’s headquarters. in the GCC to acknowledge High Definition as the format of Harris provided the graphics, character generators and a the future and perhaps also the first in the region to invest couple of standalone servers for the project. in a HD OB van several years ago. Although Kuwait TV will record and edit in High DefiniThe HDTV centre includes two studios, a master control room, two linear editing suites, one non-linear editing suite tion at the facility, transmission will continue to be in SD as the country has no plans for the commercial rollout of and a virtual studio. This was a turnkey HD contract, in which INC was respon- HDTV yet. sible for the entire broadcast project including building the studios, planning the acoustics for the same, designing, Client: Kuwait TV supplying, testing and commissioning the system. Systems integrator: INC, Kuwait Two studios were built to accommodate different producTask: Turnkey project for the building of a tion requirements for the state broadcaster. HD facility

22 DECEMBER 2009

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COVER STORY TOP 10 PROJECTS

broadcaster Egyptian Radio and Television Al Ahly TV, launched in early 2009 by AL AHLY TV Union (ERTU) , which undertakes production Egypt’s famed football club Al Ahly, fitted SI: SYSTEMS DESIGN at the venue of the matches. At Ahly’s studios, out a 400m studio that could accommothe footage is then repackaged with special date four sets, at Egyptian Media Production in-house commentary and analysis, on-air logos, City for the broadcast of the club’s matches. graphics and other branding elements before it is sent to The project was undertaken by Egyptian systems air. The backbone of the tapeless workflow at the channel is a integrator Systems Design. turnkey broadcast solution from Harris, which covers everything Key to the project was the club’s investments in several from production, automation and signal processing to channel Sony and Panasonic SD cameras to facilitate the production of branding, graphics and test and measurement. in-house programmes and commentary to complement the broadcast of the football games. The Sony E30 cameras were chosen for the studios while PaClient: Al Ahly TV nasonic’s AJHPX500 cameras were chosen for outdoors shoots Main location: Egypt owing to the flexibility provided by the P2 technology to work in Systems integrator: Systems Design a tapeless environment. Al Ahly follows a tapeless workflow. Task: Kitting out a studio for the production and Typically, feeds of a match are sent to Al Ahly from state broadcast of matches

RADIO RIYADH SI: JAMAL JAROUDI

Saudi MOCI undertook two major radio projects in the Kingdom this year. The ﬁrst comprised a major upgrade in Riyadh while the second will see Jeddah also have a radio install similar in scale to Riyadh. At the heart of both the Radio Riyadh and Jeddah installations are NETIA’s Radio-Assist System. The ﬁrst was undertaken by the company’s local distributor, Jamal Jaroudi Group, while the second was handled by German SI BFE in conjunction with local Saudi distributor DELTA. The Radio Riyadh project incorporated 15 on-air and recording studios, along with extra studios that serve as backup in the case of an emergency; a total of 65 editing workstations; and six archiving workstations. The interface for the Radio-Assist system at Radio Riyadh is in Arabic. This installation features NETIA’s Media Management, which

24 DECEMBER 2009

RADIO FACILITY, JEDDAH SI: BFE/DELTA

handles the circulation of data to ensure that files are always available at the right place, at the right time, for different activities, such as production, broadcast, and archiving. Radio Riyadh’s archives rely on NETIA’s Archive software, which directs media storage on SAN hard disks. The Jeddah install, by comparison, includes nine On Air Studios, nine recording studios, four editing rooms, approximately fifteen newsrooms and eight archiving workstations, all of which run on Radio Assist software. Client: Saudi MOCI End user: Radio Riyadh and Jeddah radio. Systems integrator: Radio Riyadh (Jamal Jaroudi Group) ; Radio in Jeddah (BFE, Germany & DELTA, KSA) Task: Installation of a turnkey radio solution

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COVER STORY TOP 10 PROJECTS

Arabian Radio Network (ARN), the radio arm of Arab Media Group, undertook a major upgrade of its facility in Dubai Media City this year. This was the first high-profile radio installation undertaken by Al Futtaim Technologies, which marked its entry into the radio business with this project. Al Futtaim Technologies installed five edit studios and one additional edit room for recording news and editing clips at ARN. A significant part of this project was the replacement of the Studer 2000 with the Studer On-Air 2500 console, the first of the new model to the installed in the Middle East. Unlike the modular 2000 model, the 2500 is a single unit that is portable and can be fit onto any studio console. Besides upgrading from legacy systems to new solutions, this project also aimed to connect all of the studios to the main control room. With this, ARN achieved two objectives. For one, by sending the signals from the studios to the control room before they were diverted to the edit, production or on-air studios for broadcast, it maintained tight control over the quality of its content. This installation in also in keeping with the company’s objective of maintaining a tapeless workflow. By routing the feeds from the studio to the control room, and from here, back to the studio and on air, it permanently eliminated the use of CDs or tapes in the facility.

ARN SI: AL FUTTAIM TECHNOLOGIES

Client: Arabian Radio Network Main location: Dubai Systems integrator: Al Futtaim Technologies Task: Upgrading legacy systems, adopting a tapeless workﬂow and connecting the studios to the main control room.

26 DECEMBER 2009

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FACE TO FACE DAVID SHEPHEARD

TAKING ON THE REEL WORLD n I an ex clusive interview with iV jaya h Cerian, Abu Dhabi’s film commissioner David Shepheard talk s about some of the initiatives that ADF Cwill undertak e to boost filmmak ing in the region What are some of the initiatives undertaken by ADFC to promote filmmaking? We held the third edition of the Circle Conference (my first here) in October, which was very successful as we had more than double the participation compared to last year. More than 350 delegates from 30 countries attended the conference this year. Several senior TV executives and broadcasters came to Abu Dhabi to share their experiences with regional filmmakers. 28 DECEMBER 2009

The Circle provided the perfect platform to network and meet these international players. It also helped promote regional businesses in the international arena as a big part of our job is to also promote the whole of the film and TV sector here in Abu Dhabi. However, The Circle Conference is only one project that the film commission is delivering. Outside of the conference, we have a number of other initiatives year round that are aimed at developing the filmmakers and their talent. As part of that, we will be financing a series of productions including different TV documentaries, short films and feature film project across different genres.

Shepheard says ADFC will launch several funding initiatives in the next 12 months.

Have you launched any funding schemes yet besides the Shasha Grant? We plan to launch a number of separate funding initiatives over the next six to 12 months to help regional companies and ﬁlm-

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FACE TO FACE DAVID SHEPHEARD

makers. We have already announced a short film scheme called Aflam Quaseera Production Fund last month to promote emerging writers, directors and UAE-based production companies that are looking to create short films for international screenings and eventual broadcast. Twenty proposals will be selected for development, of which ten will eventually be chosen for production. We also have plans to select six half-hour documentaries that will be financed by us. Do you have any projects at hand and specific budgets planned for them? We have a couple of low-budget features that were financed through last year’s efforts at the Circle. Budgets will be smaller or bigger based on the requirement of each project. We will assess each project individually for their commercial viability and try and allocate resources to them based on the need. But there is no round figure. How is ADFC different from Imagenation Abu Dhabi? Imagenation is involved in high-end production funding while we seek to work with emerging filmmakers. The hardest money for filmmakers to find is the money to develop their first films — the films that help them

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develop their craft and trade as a filmmaker. That’s the area we are looking at; the semi-professionals and talented young filmmakers who are looking to develop their professional skills. Have you had any success stories to date? Actually, we have. Hicham Ayouchis, a Moroccan filmmaker, won our $100,000 script writing prize [Shasha grant] last year. Fox Productions has signed on to produce Ayouchis’ project, Samba, which will go into production early next year. So from an initial $100,000 fund, that project is now being developed up to a point where a major Hollywood studio is taking it on and will finance it into production. That is a great success story and it’s being shot partly in the region and partly in Brazil because that’s where the story is set. Once Samba goes into production, there will be a lot more PR within the industry about the first Arabic language film that Fox did. So for them, it’s breaking new ground. It’s also a sign that more international players are now looking to forge new relationships with the Middle East. Obviously, with a huge Arab speaking population here, it’s great for them because they can then develop products for this market. More international studios are looking to

find out about this region and how they can partner with players here. They are looking at filmmakers and potential stories that they can take into development. This is why we have got great hopes for Haifaa Mansour, who won the grant this year. We have provided the seed money and there has been great interest in it from industry people who want to talk to her and form a relationship. Imagenation has also signed a first-look deal with her. We’ve already worked with her in the past because we previously funded one of her short films, and that’s the importance of our role. When we spot a good filmmaker with talent, we invest in their short film and that then becomes like a calling card. With Hicham, we only provided development finance for the project. But with Haifaa, we might take on more of an executive producer’s role to help her find the right script editors and script consultant to lead the story on. Once the project has reached a certain developed stage, someone might offer to give it production finance. We are working closely with her as a mentor would. This is what we are doing with a number of our production schemes. We are using our expertise and contacts to help the filmmakers develop their film. DECEMBER 2009 29

FACE TO FACE DAVID SHEPHEARD

How will you do that? Do you have a team of experts with you full time? Yes, I have professional producers and production executives as part of my team. If they can’t help, we will contract specialists if we need support with a specific genre. We will even look at offering one-on-one help to our filmmakers if there is a need. We have a team of twelve now but that’s quickly growing. That includes a production and training department as well as a locations and support team. Will you support production requirements only within Abu Dhabi? No, certainly not. We will offer locations that match a particular story and help secure permits to work in various locations in the UAE, not just Abu Dhabi. The UAE has a diverse range of locations from mountains and deserts to urban landscapes across the different emirates so we will be working closely with other government organisations in the other emirates as well to ensure we can keep the production here.

30 DECEMBER 2009

What we are doing here is part of the country’s 2030 plan, which sees the media industry as becoming a major contributor to the UAE’s economy in the coming years — David Shepheard, film commissioner of Abu Dhabi Are you offering any incentives for producers to shoot here? It’s a very competitive market out there. Producers are always trying to find where the production incentives are, or what we call “soft money”. In most places, schemes are based on income tax and obviously, we don’t have that here. It’s a difficult one but there are different models for production incentives and I’m actually working on some proposals now to establish an incentive fund that makes sense for us and is also economically viable for the region. What are some of the challenges of being a film commissioner in the UAE?

The challenges here are mostly positive because the industry is so young. We are able to look at some of the best models around the world and learn from some of the best practices to establish this kind of industry. That is the attractive part. Starting from scratch to build a film industry is a challenge but we have big ambitions and the government is willing to provide the resources to make those ambitious happen. What we are doing here is part of the country’s 2030 plan, which sees the media industry as becoming a major contributor to the UAE’s economy in the coming years. And the Abu Dhabi government has lent its complete support to try and make the film and TV sector here strong and vibrant.

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EDITING REVIEWS, Q&As & MORE

MAYA INTEGRATED 3D artist Suzzanne Rebello takes us through some of the key features of Maya 2010, which combines some of the best of other apps acquired by Autodesk in recent years When Autodesk brought Alias’ Maya and Softimage’s XSI, there was some talk about the company integrating its existing 3ds Max and the newly acquired software applications into one gigantic software. People even started calling it “Maxsima” or “Xsima”. Fortunately, Autodesk has taken some good features out of each of the apps and shared them with each other to enrich users’ experience. At the same time, it has retained the uniqueness of each application to keep each of the individual software loyalists happy. In essence, though there has been an exchange of features between Max and Maya, the basic user interface and functionalities remain unchanged, and that is a relief. 32 DECEMBER 2009

In case of Maya 2010, Autodesk has uniﬁed the two titles, Maya Unlimited and Maya Complete. This has been received well, because it now has made some of the more advanced professional tools available to all users at a lower price thus encouraging commercial usage. The new users and learners might have to use their PLE (Personal Learning Edition) version for starters. What’s New: Essentially, this version includes only a few new features and most of them are post production or rendering related. This includes some great camera tracking and rendering tools.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE NEW FEATURES Toxik 2010: One special feature is Toxik 2010,

the high performance compositor. Toxik which was Autodesk’s standalone application is now referred to as Maya Composite. It allows the artist to work interactively with visual media, regardless of bit-depth or image size. It also give the ability to export render passes as a pre-comp ﬁles from Maya, then generate and pre-visualise compositions in Maya Composite. Furthermore, it provides support for stereoscopic content creation and can import geometry using the FBX ﬁle format. MatchMover 2010 - Professional camera tracking: Maya has always had Live which was quite widely used for matchmoving. The 2010 release has a MatchMover software

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EDITING REVIEWS, Q&As & MORE

Autodesk has unified Maya Unlimited and Maya Complete in the 2010 vesion.

that provides a much more advanced toolset for tracking, thus replacing the Maya Live module. You can extract accurate 3D camera and motion data from video and film sequences and then insert CG elements seamlessly into a scene using Autodesk MatchMover software. A separate window allows you to track a sequence manually or automatically. When the process is completed, the MatchMover provides a series of tracked points as lines. These can be further simplified or tweaked and then exported to Maya as groups all placed under a few locators which can be accessed in the outliner. MatchMover 2010 allows users to better map 3D imagery onto a scene, such as adding a 3D images to a 2D video. It can also generate a set of tracking points on an image to create a camera path as the video moves. This allows 3D objects to blend in seamlessly with a 2D video. It’s fast and straightforward to use. Besides, there’s also a motion-capture module that allows the end user to capture data from a non-rigid bodies, such as humans, or cloth objects. Stereoscopic 3D imaging – With Stereoscopic being the next big thing for film post-production, Autodesk has updated its support in Maya. You can take a collection of objects ar-

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2010 gives users access to the Maya Nucleus unified simulation framework and the first two fully integrated Nucleus simulation modules as well as Fluid Effects, Hair, and Fur.

ranged in a suitable layout (such as near, middle and far positions from the viewpoint) and Select Create > Cameras > Stereo Camera, creating a camera with three fixed heads. You can switch between different viewing modes, such as Horizontal Interlace or Anaglyph by selecting the Stereo viewing mode and adjusting the attributes of the cameras to fine-tune the stereo effect. For example, you can increase the 3D effect by decreasing the Zero Parallax setting. This moves objects closer to the camera and lets you see more depth. The stereoscopic effect is most realistic when the Zero Parallax

Plane is exactly situated between near and far objects in your scene. We have tested this extensively and it works beautifully. Advanced simulation tools: 2010 has finally given access to the innovative Maya Nucleus unified simulation framework and the first two fully integrated Nucleus simulation modules (Maya nCloth and Maya nParticles) as well as Maya Fluid Effects, Maya Hair, and Maya Fur. One of the benefits of the unified version of Maya is that the nParticles system is now available to all users. Based on Autodesk’s Nucleus technology, these make creatDECEMBER 2009 33

EDITING REVIEWS, Q&As & MORE

ing and tweaking realistic simulations of physical objects a breeze, quickly boosting the realism of your scene and minimising manual tweaking. Maya 2010 offers more nParticles presets in the Visor, including interactions such as an egg cracking into a frying pan, a gas flame, jet exhaust trail, nParticle rain, nParticle and fluids interaction, and others that you can manipulate to fit your scene. The descriptions in the Notes sections of the nParticles Attribute Editor tabs help you better understand how the effects in the example files were achieved. Animation: In addition to the animation Layers, in which you could do several things such as create and blend multiple types of animation onto a model. eg: an animation of a walk with another of a jump – or create layers to organise new keyframe animation, or to keyframe on top of existing animation without overwriting the original curves, Maya 2010 now allows the end user to add constraints and expressions to animation layers. Besides this, one can also use the Animation Layer Editor to drill down through the Hypergraph to identify the nodes that control the animation. Then you use the Expression editor to write an expression and connect it to the node you want to drive. You can use expressions to drive sophisticated layered animation. The Visor window also features a new set 34 DECEMBER 2009

of motion-capture example files. Switching to the Mocap Examples tab lets you import from the list directly onto a rigged character in Maya. Export: Newly added support for the Autodesk FBX software ﬁle transfer technology helps make it possible for artists to transfer 3D scenes built in 3ds Max, Maya, and Softimage into Mudbox with greater portability and more data retained than was previously possible using the .OBJ ﬁle format. This means greater productivity as artists no longer have to redo as much work.

RENDERING POWER With five additional Mental ray for Batch rendering, you can now use a network of computers to render your sequences faster. The Backburner network render queue manager is also included with Maya 2010, to help manage the process. The 2010 release has new image renderings, new filters, new texture maps, and several other updates. There are also some improvements to existing tools. In addition, there is the new non-photorealistic render that makes your 3D objects look like drawings — an interesting effect to apply to an image. I am a huge fan of Maya Paint on 3d so I particularly liked the new functionality where I can now use mirroring when doing texture painting. This saves a great deal of time and I can then use it to add more detailing. Autodesk Digital Entertainment Creation

Suite: This includes Autodesk MotionBuilder 2010 and Mudbox 2010. MotionBuilder 2010 is aimed at users of motion capture and 3D character animation. It specialises in rendering character movement and interaction with other objects. The new version adds several new features, including increased performance to the animation engine, and the ability for users to define their own keying groups. The Ragdoll animation mixing feature allows the user to create character thresholds. This is very useful in simulating animation on varied surfaces. There are also improvements made to the Dynamic Joints system which allow for more realistic and fluid movement. Add dynamic joints into a character’s hair or tails and you will get a satisfactory flow of secondaries. The New Pose Controls allow a user to record poses for any object in a given scene, which can then be reused for animations. Mudbox 2010 focuses primarily on modelling objects and is comparable to moulding a character from clay. This feature is similar to what ZBrush from Pixologic offers. It is a highly-advanced digital sculpting software that allows artists to mould 3D objects from digital clay, paint them in 3D, and add textures and effects to create photorealistic characters and objects. OS REQUIREMENTS * The 32-bit version of Maya 2010 will be supported on the Windows Vista Business (SP1), Windows XP Professional (SP2) and Apple Mac OS X 10.5.7 operating systems. * The 64-bit version of Maya 2010 will be supported on the Windows Vista Business (SP1), Windows XP x64 Edition (SP2), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (5.3 WS) and Fedora 8 operating systems PRICE Price: Approx $4000. The Suites provide artists and production facilities with access to a more complete range of creative tools at more than 35% cost savings, compared to purchasing each product individually. The new Maya Entertainment Creation Suite 2010 options allow for flexibility in tool choice and workflow for artists. It offers a complete CG pipeline system and is very cost effective for small to medium sized studios.

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EDITING REVIEWS, Q&As & MORE

DIGITAL AGRI–‘CULTURE’ — RENDER FARMS Render farms are at the core of any animation or editing work. The faster you can render, the faster you can get closer to your deadline. It is common knowledge that an exhaustive number of processor hours are required to create visual effects and animations for films and TV shows. For example, render times totalled 40 million hours for Monsters vs. Aliens, 30 million hours for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and 6.6 million hours for Revenge of the Sith. A good render time for television visual effects is anywhere between 30 minutes to one hour per frame, while multiple hours per frame is common for feature films. Some of the IMAX resolution frames required for Devastator, a character in Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, took up to 72 hours per frame. How do studios get around this?

They use render farms that are banks of machines with the express purpose of rendering finished frames. In addition to the systems that animators use, render farms simultaneously use many dedicated processors for rendering. For instance, Industrial Light and Magic had a render farm with 5,700 processor cores (and 2,000 cores in their artists' machines) when Transformers 2 was produced. Even a small facility with only a dozen animators is likely to have more than a hundred processor cores at their disposal at any point. Use of render farms isn't restricted to large studios and 3D artists. Smaller studios have their own render farms and many freelance artists have them as well. Compositors and freelance motion-graphics artists can also make use of them. Some editing systems support the use of ad-

ditional machines called render nodes to accelerate rendering. This type of setup can be extended to architectural visualisation and even, to digital audio workstations. Most 3D software and compositing applications include network rendering capabilities, and many also have some form of a network rendering controller. So, the additional nodes can be managed from your workstation, making it possible to run them as headless systems with no mouse, keyboard, or monitor. Adding a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) client to each node allows you to remotely manage the nodes without the additional expense associated with adding a multi-channel system keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM) switch for separate access to each. The hardware in a render farm consists of

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KEY RENDER FARM PLAYERS: Hardware: HP – www.hp.com Dell – www.dell.com Verari Systems– www.verari.com Boxx Technologies – www.boxxtech.com Workstation Specialists – www.workstationspecialist.com Software / Queue Manager Solution include: Dr.Queue – www.drqueue.org Smedge – www.uberware.net Qube! – www.pipelinefx.com Rush – www.seriss.com Muster – www.vvertex.com Today, you no longer need to have a physical render farm at your oﬃce. There are plenty of online render farms that provide high-speed remote rendering. www.rebusfarm.com www.rendercubic.com www.remote-render.com www.respower.com www.renderrocket.com

38 DECEMBER 2009

many high performance, powerful desktop and rack mounted render servers and render boxes (or render nodes as they are more commonly known). Render Servers are remotely configured/ managed CPU rendering devices that are designed to make one’s creative projects easier. By removing the main rendering tasks from the design studio and onto dedicated Render Servers, they allow the end user to free up time to continue working (rather than sit around waiting for the render to complete). Rendering can be done anytime, day or night with a render farm manager distributing the render jobs (maximising speed, render farm efficiency and project deadlines). Simply put, a render farm employs many PCs simultaneously by running a queue manager on each box. The queuing software divides a job into multiple parts and decides which machine executes which part and when. Each machine refers to the job's scene file, which needs to reside in a

location accessible to all the machines, and renders its share of frames. Once ﬁnished, each system stores the rendered frames back to that central location, ready for review. The operating system governs the choice of queue management software. Dr Queue won't run on Windows, for instance; Smedge will only run on Windows, and so forth. There are several criteria to consider while sorting through the available applications. Do you want a free or open-source application, or are you willing to pay for tech nical support? What kinds of projects do you want to render out—Autodesk Maya, 3ds max, Adobe After Eﬀects, or any of a number of others? It is important to pick a queue manager that supports them. Amitaabh Naaraayan is a 3D and SFX professional based in Dubai.

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ON LOCATION SON OF BABYLON

SON OF BABYLON Two months ago, Son of Babylon, a moving tale about a young Iraqi boy and his grandmother who go in search of her missing son, premiered at the Middle East International Film Festival. Iraqi filmmaker and the author of Son of Babylon, Mohammed Daradji tells Vijaya Cherian about the making of his film

40 DECEMBER 2009

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ON LOCATION SON OF BABYLON

Daradji is no stranger to the film world. In 2006, he made headlines when his first feature, Ahlaam hit the screens. A telling story about three inmates in a mental institution in Baghdad, Ahlaam mirrored the chaos and confusion of a war-torn Iraq following three decades of iron rule under Saddam Hussein. Daradji won more than 22 awards for Ahlaam and represented Iraq for both the Oscars and Golden Globe consideration in 2007. Son of Babylon, his next feature, is also set in Iraq. From the mountains of the North to the sands of Babylon, Daradji takes us on a journey through different parts of his home country with the protagonist and his grandmother as the pair hitches rides with strangers and crosses paths with fellow pilgrims on similar quests. As the grandmother struggles to accept the truth about her missing son, the little boy Ahmed retraces the footsteps of a father he never knew. The journey will not just connect them to the past, but will also determine their future. The idea for Son of Babylon came to Daradji

in 2003 when he was walking along Al-Rashid Street in Baghdad, he says. “As I was walking down the road, I heard the news on a radio in a nearby shop that mass graves had been discovered near Babylon. I stopped cold in my tracks as I knew of many fathers and sons of family and friends who had disappeared over the years. My thought went back to my auntie, whose son had gone missing 15 years ago. Despite these mass graves bring uncovered, many people still remained missing or unidentified. It was then that the ideas for Son of Babylon came up. I wanted to bind two generations — the older steeped in suffering; the younger bearing hope for the future. A mother’s search for her lost son; a boy’s journey to find himself and his father,” explains Daradji. “Over four years, day and night, I prepared and wrote the script while gathering the archival footage of what had happened,” he adds. Scripted along with another Iraqi and British

script writers, Daradji set forth to make his film in Baghdad. As a cinematographer, who graduated with a double masters from the UK in both cinematography and directing, Daradji preferred the traditional approach of shooting with 35mm. “I am from the old school of thought so I prefer shooting with film. However, I recently saw what the digital format could do and am seriously considering shooting my next film with a digital camera,” he confides. Filming in Iraq posed several challenges for Daradji. For one, every single element that was required for the film had to be brought into the country including the film stock, cameras and other kit. Secondly, filming in a country ridden with daily power cuts meant driving around with a generator all the time. Security issues also deterred Daradji’s foreign crew from staying in Iraq for too long. He had to rely

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DECEMBER 2009 41

ON LOCATION SON OF BABYLON

on Iraqi cast and crew to make his film. “We do not have a film industry in Iraq and that immediately means that the infrastructure you take for granted in other countries for shooting simply does not exist there. You have to plan your requirements to the last detail,” explains Daradji. “We had more than 50 crew members and a thousand background artists. Security was a big challenge. We tried to shoot in locations where we could avoid the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police so we could shoot without interruption,” he adds. Daradji’s woes did not end there. He had brought in three experts each from England and France to train his local crew. However, they had to fly back to their respective countries owing to security reasons. “Basically, if I had to make my film, I realised I’d have to rely heavily on Iraqi crew and artists. But I was prepared this time. A year ago before shooting for the film, I had trained some Jordanian and Iraqi crew in Jordan at the Royal Film Commission of Jordan. I got some European filmmakers to come down and do the workshops for them. I thought we could use some Jordanians as well but for security reasons, we couldn’t use them. In the meantime, one of my friends also did several master classes, workshops and so on for some Iraqi artists as he teaches in a film school so we managed to get a lot of trained crew for the film,” he explains. At the last stage of the movie, Daradji, however, required extra funding which came from the generous coffers of Pyramedia, an Abu Dhabi-based media house that regularly runs film workshops in different parts of the Middle East to encourage filmmaking. “I heard about Pyramedia when I went to one of their film workshops in Saudi Arabia. A filmmaker there told me about Pyramedia so I approached them for funding and Nashwa, the CEO of Pyramedia, promised her full support,” he explains. When watching Son of Babylon, one gets the feeling that the viewer is not permitted to identify with the characters in the film. Daradji admits that he deliberately wanted to keep the audience detached from the characters’ journey. “Basically, I moved the camera as the 42 DECEMBER 2009

characters moved so that the point of view of the camera would be that of the audience. I wanted the audience to witness the story rather than become part of the story so that they didn’t just look at it as a ﬁlm and then forget all about it. To enable this, I placed the camera in diﬀerent angles and never repeated the same angles. I also shot the same scene

from different angles so that the spectator’s views would be independent of the journey of the character,” explains Daradji. In some disturbing scenes, minimum editing has been done to ensure that the reality of the situation is maintained, according to the filmmaker. Son of Babylon received much applause from viewers at MEIFF. For many, the film offered another side of the story rarely covered in the media. Daradji’s filmmaking journey, however, has only begun and he chiefly draws inspiration from the stories of his own country. He has already begun work on his next film, which he hopes to complete by next year.

VITAL STATS Format: 35mm (Shot on Kodak Vision 3, 35mm) Panavision lenses Aspect Ratio: 2:35 Sound: Dolby 5.1 SRD Language: Arabic & Kurdish Subtitles: English Editing: Avid Adrenaline. Colour corrected at Technicolor, London. Sound recording & mixing: Sound 24 Studios and Pinewood Studios, UK.

KEY CREW Director/DoP: Mohamed Al-Daradji Screenwriters: Jennifer Norridge, Mohamed Al-Daradji, Mithal Ghazi Producers: Isabelle Stead, Atia Al-Daradji, Mohamed AlDaradji,Dimitri de Clercq Co-Producer: Danny Evans, Rashid Mashawari , Bader Ben Hirsi Executive Producers: Antonia Bird, Nashwa Al Ruwaini, Hugo Heppell

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ON LOCATION SON OF BABYLON

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PRODUCTS WHAT’S HOT

EYEON OFFERS 3D SUPPORT WITH GENERATION 2.0 eyeon Software Inc. has launched Generation 2.0. Generation fills a gap in post and VFX workflows by giving producers, supervisors, artists, and editors a common ‘visual effects desktop’ for shot management and review and approval. Generation 2.0 builds on the success of earlier versions, adding support for RED .r3d and OpenEXR file formats, stereoscopic 3D playback, expanded LUT support, new editing tools, and much more. The result is a highlyflexible front-end application for managing complex projects on tight deadlines. Generation 2.0 features an open architecture that allows facilities to easily integrate the application, with its editing and playback tools, into their existing infrastructure. WEB: www.eyeonline.com TEL: +1 416 686 8411

ASSIMILATE IGNITES RED 4K WORKFLOW WITH NEW ROCKET ASSIMILATE has launched its new, ROCKET FUEL bundle that includes the needed tools for realtime ingest, conform, delivery and output of RED ONE 4K digital camera material. Created specifically for cost-sensitive indies, filmmakers, and post-production facilities, ASSIMILATE’s ROCKET FUEL includes an Nvidia Quadro FX3800 SDI board, RED’s RED Rocket card, and ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH CINE 4K post workflow. The first integrated product solution to support RED ROCKET, and offered exclusively by ASSIMILATE, the ROCKET FUEL bundle, along with a PC-based workstation, gives anyone working with RED 4K material a lot of workflow functionality including tape dailies to a variety of formats, from NTSC and PAL, up to dual-link 2048X1080; Screening in virtually all formats; accelerated data output to Quicktime and file sequences; quality check (QC) for on-set and for post dailies; R3D conform from editorial EDLs; Pan/Scan and Output in real time, with animated curves; set-up

for SCRATCH FINISH, a low-cost method of getting timelines set-up for migrating to FINISH for final mastering and delivery and Set-up and transcode for DI — a low cost method of getting timelines set-up and rendered for migrating to other DI systems. All of this functionality, and more, is from full-resolution, uncompressed, fully debayered and demosaiced 4K. Fully tested, SCRATCH CINE v5.0 is a native 64-bit application with Win7 x 64 as the operating system. As RED’s first partner for a 4K post workflow, ASSIMILATE is setting the post-production standard with SCRATCH for the needed realtime 4K post workflows – simplified ingest of native REDCODE files, streamlined end-to-end workflow, conform, colour grading, finishing and mastering. WEB: www.assimilateinc.com TEL: +44 207 851 8661

VIZRT OFFERS NEW ENHANCED VIZ VIDEO HUB Vizrt has unveiled version 2.0 of its Viz Video Hub plug-and-play asset management (MAM) system. Version 2.0 provides extended support for archiving through a Tape Robot feature. The Tape Robot support enables broadcasters to archive huge amounts of video assets directly within Viz Video Hub. It also serves as a long-term storage solution because the Tape Robot hardware exchanges outdated tapes automatically. The new version is also now integrated with Avid’s NewsCutter video editing software so that users can leverage Viz Video Hub with the non-linear editing (NLE) software. As with previous versions, Viz Video Hub also supports Apple’s Final Cut Pro NLE software. Viz Video Hub is a scalable, upgradeable system for IT-based production and archiving. It can serve as the anchor for the entire Vizrt workﬂow, spanning newsrooms, editing stations, channel branding, control

46 DECEMBER 2009

rooms, and every production task from ingest to playout. The software includes capabilities for ingest and playout, transcoding, browsing, and craft editing. With its support for Viz Link workﬂow, Viz Video Hub 2.0 allows graphics solutions, including the Viz Trio HD/SD CG graphics engine, Viz Content Pilot for real-time template-based graphics creation, and Viz Multichannel for

channel branding, to search for video clips on the MAM storage, retrieve and edit them, and add them to graphics and templates. The Viz Link support enables video assets contained in the Viz Video Hub to be quickly and easily retrieved and repurposed by Vizrt graphics solutions such as Viz Content Pilot, Viz Multichannel and Viz Trio. Additionally, the video assets of Viz Video Hub can be directly accessed from within the Escenic Content Studio software for managing and publishing media content to web, mobile, and other new media distribution platforms. The integration of Viz Video Hub 2.0 and Viz Escenic Content Studio, web journalists can now search and add video content stored within the Viz Video Hub to their online news stories directly from the Escenic Content Studio interface. WEB: www.vizrt.com TEL: +971 4 365 4650

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PRODUCTS WHAT’S HOT

QUANTEL SUPPORTS RED ROCKET USERS

TELESTREAM ANNOUNCES SCREENFLOW 2.0 SCREENCASTING SOFTWARE

Quantel has released a new version of software for its eQ, iQ and Pablo systems which includes support for the RED Rocket accelerator board. Quantel claims to be the first manufacturer to release software that supports it, allowing its users to benefit from the loading and conform times RED Rocket enables with RED-originated material. The new release includes the Cubebuilder, which enables Pablo users to build, manipulate and apply 3D LUTs entirely within Pablo and several other features such as process re-ordering in multi-layer timeline effects; nine new blend modes; improved conform and file handling features and new file export modes to simplify Blu-ray and DVD generation.

Telestream has released a major 2.0 version of its ScreenFlow screencasting studio software for the Mac. ScreenFlow 2.0 customers can now export and upload SD and HD screencasts directly to YouTube. A full range of new 2D and 3D transitions allow users to add elegant effects to their video productions. Version 2.0 also offers more control over editing, video speed adjustments, audio level adjustments, keyboard shortcuts and the creation of document packages. ScreenFlow is a cost-effective software toolkit that makes it easy for software developers, trainers, educators, and bloggers to capture, edit and create professional-quality screen recordings and video tutorials for the web. The four-time screencasting software is useful for the creation of training and promotional video tutorials that enhance learning

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48 DECEMBER 2009

experiences, presentations and product demonstrations. ScreenFlow 2.0 includes a full range of 2D and 3D transitions such as page curl, ripple, spin, flash, cube, swipe, cross dissolve and more. Users simply push transitions together on a timeline, where they can control the time and speed of their transitions. Direct publishing to YouTube from within the screencast application is a new feature that saves users time and effort when uploading and sharing finished productions either publicly or with authorised viewers. Editing enhancements include the ability to adjust clip speed as well as to freeze a single frame of video and adjust the audio pace. WEB: www.telestream.net TEL: 877-681-2088

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SOMMER’S NEW CAT Sommer Cable has launched the CAT.7 cable of the EXCELSIOR classique 1 series, which it claims is the fastest network RJ45 patch cable in the world. The network cable transfers digital audio and video data and is designed for ultrafast 10 Gbit class F connections – according to the Fast Ethernet ATM 155 Prot., EN 50173 2ed, EN50288-1, EN 50288-5-1, IEC 61156-5 and ISO 11801 2ed approbations. The mounted full-metal RJ45-CAT.6A connectors have a special bushing for large cable cross sections which are indispensable for a 10 Gbit transmission according to IEEE 802.3. The EXCELSIOR classique CAT.7 has a distinctive wine-red hose-type mesh sheath (Ø 8.5 mm). The interior features four wire pairs shielded with AL/PT foil AWG24/7 containing 7 x 0.203 mm single wires per conductor. WEB: www.sommercable.com TEL: +49 7082 49133-0

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SPECIAL REPORT MEBS/METV

SOUND BITES FROM MEBS/METV Digital Studio returns from the inaugural Abu Dhabi broadcast show with sound bites from exhibitors The METV/MEBS show held in Abu Dhabi was very small, to say the least. We saw about 15 exhibitors in total. Most exhibitors had come to show their allegiance to twofour54, Abu Dhabi’s media hotbed, or woo customers in Abu Dhabi as the UAE capital has been investing heavily in the media business in 2009. Digital Studio also learnt that the show had discreetly changed hands from first-time organiser Nexus to Abu Dhabi events company, Turret before the beginning of the event. Key exhibitors included Abu Dhabi’s twofour54; Dubai-based United Broadcast & Media Solutions; Oasis Enterprises, Associated Press which had flown in 15 personnel from its international offices; HP; production services provider MediaPro; Nautel; Tek Signals; Pyramedia and a few others. As the show was quiet, it provided industry pros the opportunity to catch up and network away from the bustle of their offices.

It’s a very small exhibition but we have had some very qualiﬁed customers. It was very important for us to exhibit here next to twofour54, which is our business partner. However, we would like to fully explore the potential of the media market in Abu Dhabi, which we believe has great potential in the coming years. I also hope to see a much stronger marketing campaign for the exhibition next year because a lot of people in the industry had not heard about it. Basel Al Aref, GM - Professional Projects Division, Oasis Enterprises L.L.C

52 DECEMBER 2009

I think we will exhibit again in Abu Dhabi if we have more content producers attending the show. We had a few good visitors from Abu Dhabi but we won’t know now if any of those discussions will actually translate to sales. We exhibit at any show to raise the proﬁle of our company and reach out to potential customers. There should be some marketing strategy in place to attract production houses from diﬀerent Middle East locations like Lebanon, Egypt, Iran and so on. It has to be a show that addresses their requirements for them to come and exhibit. When the content producers and distributors come down, the TV channels will also begin to attend. And when that happens, resellers such us will begin to enjoy the show. We are hoping for another MIP in Abu Dhabi and I’m quite certain the authorities there will make it happen. Reza Mehdizadeh, sales and marketing manager, UBMS

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SPECIAL REPORT MEBS/METV

Above left: A conference in , session at MEBS and below right Chris Darnley of JVC shows off the new JVC 3D monitor.

W a big systems integrator so we’d like to be inWe’re vo volved in as many broadcast shows in the region as p possible. Abu Dhabi is especially important to us as w are based here. It made sense for us to exhibit we a a show that would also deﬁnitely appeal to cusat to tomers in Abu Dhabi. We had a big 55 sq.ms stand a showcased Grass Valley HD equipment such as and c cameras, servers, vision mixers and so on. We also be believe that Abu Dhabi is becoming an important market for broadcast systems. We were especially impressed with the twofour54 initiative and would like to play a role in it in the future. Of course, it was rather small this year but that’s how the ﬁrst show usually is. We believe that in the coming years, this show will grow bigger and we wanted to support it from its inception. Having said that, we will also have a big presence at CABSAT in Dubai next year. Tariq Raja, managing partner, Tek Signals, Abu Dhabi

54 DECEMBER 2009

This show was a good opportunity to come to Abu Dhabi and meet with twofour54 and other companies that operate out of the UAE capital. As MediaPro oﬀers a wide range of services from production to OB and specialist crew supply to post production as well as engineering and systems integration, it’s often diﬃcult for clients here to understand the scope of what we do. We already have a 19-member team operating ou of International Media Production Zone (IMPZ) out in Dubai and have about 50 people with us on tempo work visas as we provide a lot of production porary se services and specialised crew for LIVE in Abu Dhabi. Du Sports is also one of our customers to whom Dubai w provide both services as well as our OB facilities. we W are here to woo more clients and tailor make our We se services depending on what they want from us. DDavid Mas, engineering and sales manager, Mediapro M Middle East

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RAPID FIRE SALMAN ALI ALMUTAIWEE

RIYADH GEARS UP FOR MEDIA SHOW The second edition of the Riyadh Media and Multimedia Exhibition will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from December 6-9. Salman Ali Almutaiwee, CEO of event organiser Elaqaty International Group, shares details of the show with Digital Studio. What was the driving force behind the launch of this exhibition? As a media player, I realise how important this industry is so I was keen to launch an exhibition in my city, Riyadh. We know how the digital and multimedia world has begun to impact the way we view content. This, in turn, has had an eﬀect on the way content is produced and distributed today. We wanted to bring all the related industries in the region together to a common platform to discuss some of the key issues and challenges surrounding these sectors.

SOME KEY EXHIBITORS

What format will this exhibition follow? Will it be like CABSAT or like the Cairo Media Festival and ERTU that has a mix of both production and technology? I believe we are all on the same track with the same objective but with small differences in the way we organise thee show. At the Riyadh Media and MultitiDATES: media Exhibition, we want to establish a dialogue between December 6-9 the producers themselves. VENUE: l We also want them to netRiyadh Internationa work with the manufacturers Exhibition Centre, and the distributors. Saudi Arabia We hope to make information available to our visitors and also will occu occupy 15,000 square metres showcase new technology that helps of space at the t Riyadh International the production industry do their work Exhibition Centre. We will have a number of efficiently. At the same time, we also want exhibitors from different parts of the region more mileage for what Saudi companies do. attending the show. Will you also host a conference this year? No, but we will have one next year. How will this edition of the show be different from your inaugural event? The first one was much smaller. This one

56 DECEMBER 2009

How many exhibitors do you have so far? Fifty-ﬁve companies have conﬁrmed participation. They come from a wide variety of industries including production, broadcasting, publishing, PR and communications and the content market.

Advanced Media Rotana UBMS ArabSat Nile Sat Egyptian International Production Agency Al Khail TV King Abdul Aziz Foundation Egyptian Media Company How many visitors did you have last year and how many do you expect this year? Last year, we were surprised to see a few thousand visitors. This year, we expect more than 7000 as this event is taking place at the Riyadh Exhibition Centre. Will any companies be making any big announcements at the show? There are a few companies that will formally sign deals at the show, we are told and it will be broadcast live from the spot. However, it’s meant to be kept conﬁdential until they are oﬃcially announced. HRH Prince Turki bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz from the Saudi Ministry of Information will open the show this year.

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Broadcast & Professional Video/Photo Equipment